Lantern burner



April 13, 1937. k A PERKIN 2,077,129

LANTERN BURNER Filed July 11, 1935 INVENTOR, A151? :0 J, HER/(1N5 ATTORNEV Patented Apr. 13, 1937 UNITED STATES LANTERN BURNER Alfred J. Perkins, Warsaw, N., Y., assignor to Embury Manufacturing '00., Warsaw, N. Y., a

corporation of New York Application July 11, 1935, Serial No. 30,866

2 Claims.

This invention relates to burners for oil lanterns and has for its object to provide a new and improved construction for such a burner in order to increase the efiiciency thereof and eliminate the creeping of the flame when the lantern is being heated.

This and other objects and attendant advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description thereof which follows, reference being had to the accompanying drawing in which Figure 1 is an enlarged top plan view of the new burner construction.

Figure 2 is an enlarged side elevation of the new burner construction.

Figure 3 is an enlarged end elevation of the new burner construction.

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional View when the burner gets hot shortly after it is lit.

or when the lantern is subjected to sunlight and is heated thereby. The latter condition arises in the case of a lantern which is continuously left lit for several days on construction or highway work. When a lantern burner is lit its body is cold so that at that time the wick can only be adjusted to produce the most efiicient flame with the burner cold. However after the burner body is heated by its flame within a short time after it is lit heat from the burner is conducted to the Wick tube which heats the oil contained in the wick before its is burned. If too much heat is conveyed to the wick tube the oil is gasified at an increasing rapid rate with the result that the original flame gradually increases or creeps to a larger size until it finally begins to smoke because of incomplete combustion due to the increased feed of oil without a proportionate increase of air for the complete combustion thereof.

The lateral spreading of the flame for the purpose of increasing the illuminating efliciency of the burner and the elimination of the creeping of the flame is secured by the novel construction of the burner which surrounds the wick tube l thereof. This wick tube is mounted on and projects thru the hollow base 2 in which are mounted the wick feeding wheels 3. 3 carried on the wick adjusting stem 4. The feeding wheels project thru suitable openings in the side of the wick tube and engage the wick 5 so that on the rotation thereof by the adjusting stem and its knurled handle 4A the wick may be either forced up or down in the wick tube to adjust the Wick portion exposed above the Wick tube.

The burner construction which surrounds the wick tube and secures the proper combustion for a steady uniform. flame with an increased spread comprises a trough 6 having the sides 1 and 8 which are inclined inwardly of the trough and the ends 9 and H] which are inclined outwardly thereof. In the bottom of the trough is provided an oval shaped opening 11 thru which the wick tube l projects into the trough with its top substantially flush with the bottom of the trough as illustrated in Figure 4. The length of the opening is substantially equal to the long width of the wick tube eliminating substantially any space in the opening ll between the narrow edges of the wick tube and the long ends of the opening. In this way the opening II is divided by the wick tube into a pair of air ducts located on opposite sides of the tube thru which air is admitted into the bottom of the burner trough on each side of the wick tube. Air entering the trough for the combustion of the burner flame is thusrbrought in direct contact with the wick tube which serves to cool the tube to keep it from heating the Wick and gasifying the fuel with which the wick is saturated at too rapid a rate. The fact that the wick tube is substantially out of direct contact with the burner trough keeps the heat of the burner body, of which the trough forms a part, from being conducted to the wick tube and makes the cooling of the wick tube by the air entering the trough thru the opening ll thereof that much more effective.

Additional air openings 12 and I3 are provided in the inwardly inclined sides I and 8 which are located so that the air entering thru these openings in the sides of the trough supplements the air entering the opening H in the bottom of the trough and together are directed against the long sides of the wick and the flame supported thereby. With all of the air directed against opposite sides of the wick and no air directed against the ends thereof, the flame may spread laterally in the burner trough and this is made possible by the outwardly inclined ends 9 and I0 which gradually increase the length of the trough to accommodate the increased width or spread of the flame.

The inwardly inclined sides I and 8 of the 5 trough overhang the bottom of the trough so as to permit the admission of sufficient air into the trough thru the bottom and sides and reduce the thickness of the flame to a minimum and further facilitate the increased spread thereof.

The burner trough, which surrounds the upper ,end of the wick tube, as above described, is supported by a pair of inclined uprights l4 and I5 which form continuations of the inclined sides I and 8 of the trough. These uprights are suitably 5 anchored and supported on the base 2 to provide unobstructed ventilation of the burner trough with a minimum amount of heat conduction from the trough to the base and wick tube to prevent any creeping of the flame.

I claim:

1. In a lantern burner in combination with a wick tube of a combined flame spreader and combustion chamber having side and end walls, a bottom and an open top with a substantially oval shaped inlet in the bottom and the end of the wick tube extending across the long axis of the oval shaped inlet to reduce said inlet and divide it into two smaller inlets of gradually diminishing size from the middle towards the ends thereof to provide a restricted flow of air thru said inlets along the sides of the wick tube, said end walls of said combustion chamber extending upwardly at an angle from the ends of said wick tube and away therefrom.

2. In a lantern burner in combination with a wick tube of a combined spreader and combustion chamber having side and end walls, a bottom and an open top andan elongated restricted opening in said bottom, said wick tube projecting into said opening and extending from one end to the other end thereof to provide two reduced air inlets along side of said wick tube, said side walls of said combustion chamber each having an elongated opening therein at substantially the level of the top of said wick tube and close to the imperforate portion of the bottom of said combustion chamber.

ALFRED J. PERKINS. 

